Prof. Queenie Lai formerly served as Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law the Deputy Programme Director of the Postgraduate Certificate of Laws (PCLL) Programme. She specialises in teaching corporate practice and is the course leader for a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including Corporate Finance, Writing and Drafting Commercial Documents (Mergers & Acquisitions), Public Listed Companies and Business and the Law in Hong Kong. Over the years, she has taught many subjects in the Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws and Postgraduate Certificate of Laws Program.

Prof. Lai was selected by the Pro Vice-Chancellor and awarded the CUHK Faculty of Law’s inaugural Excellent Teacher Award in recognition of her commitment to excellence in teaching in 2015. She received the CUHK Faculty of Law Teaching Excellence Award again in 2018.

Prof. Lai is also the Principal Investigator of the “Simulated Clients in Professional Legal Education” project, awarded a teaching grant of HK$459,250 for the 2016-2019 triennium by the University Grants Committee.

Prior to joining CUHK in 2010, Prof. Lai practiced as a corporate finance lawyer at Clifford Chance’s various international offices including Hong Kong, Shanghai and London. She assisted Chinese and multinational corporate clients on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and participated in a variety of initial public offerings in Hong Kong. She also has experience with Clifford Chance’s London leading private equity group and advised major international private equity houses on its various acquisitions and disposals in Europe.

Due to her innate interest in teaching and training, Prof. Lai joined Slaughter & May, London as Legal Corporate Training Manager, where she had overall responsibility for firmwide corporate training. Prof. Lai also has experience with an investment bank in Hong Kong where she provided tailor-made fundraising solutions to various corporate clients from a range of industries in the region.

Prof. Lai received her Bachelors and Masters of Arts in Law degree from the University of Cambridge and was a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship award recipient. She also received her Masters of Law degree with Distinction from the Georgetown University as a Rotary International Scholar.

Prof. Lai has studied and practiced in Cambridge, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Washington D.C., and Shanghai. She was admitted as a Solicitor in the High Court of Hong Kong and as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.

 EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor of Arts in Law, Master of Arts in Law (University of Cambridge)
• Master of Laws in Securities Regulation (Georgetown University) (Distinction)
• Postgraduate Certificate of Laws (University of Hong Kong)
• Solicitor of the High Court of Hong Kong (non-practising)
• Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales (non-practising)

AWARDS

• Inaugural Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Excellent Teacher Award (2014-2015)
• Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law Teaching Excellence Award (2017-2018)
• Rotary International Scholarship
• Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship
• Magdalene College Bursary
• United World College Scholarship
• Clifford Chance PCLL sponsorship

TEACHING GRANTS

• Principal Investigator, “Simulated Clients in Professional Legal Education: Training Law Students to be Effective Corporate Legal Practitioners“, University Grants Committee Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant (TDLEG) for 2016-2019 Triennium, HK$459,250
• Faculty video on Simulated Clients:
  https://www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/app/simulated-client-initiative-innovative-training-for-legal-education/

APPOINTMENTS

• Deputy Programme Director for Postgraduate Certificate of Laws PCLL Program, 2017-2019
• External Assessor for Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountant Practising Certificate Examinations PC-Law paper, since 2011
• Leading Examiner for PCLL Conversion Examination (Business Associations), since 2016
• Chung Chi College Department Coordinator, since 2011
• Chung Chi College Final Year Scholarships Sub-Committee, since 2011
• Member of the PCLL Assessment Panel
• Member of the PCLL Programme Panel
• Member of Faculty Student Discipline Committee
• Member of LLM Programmes Review Panel
• Member of Hong Kong Corporate Counsel Association
• Fellow of Cambridge Commonwealth Society
• Fellow of Cambridge Overseas Society

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Book Chapters

• Queenie Lai, ‘IPOs in Hong Kong‘, in D. Cumming and S. Johan (eds), Oxford Handbook of IPOs, Oxford University Press, 2018.
• ‘Provisional Liquidation’, in J. Scott and Brian Gilchrist (eds), Company Law: Insolvency 2017, Sweet and Maxwell (2017).

Annotated Ordinances

• Volume 1 in The Hong Kong Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622) Commentary & Annotations, Sweet and Maxwell (2016).
• Volume 1 in ELG Tyler and S. Lo (eds), The New Companies Ordinance (Cap 622): A Butterworths Hong Kong Handbook, LexisNexis Butterworths (2014).

CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS

• Invited Speaker, “Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste” – Blended Learning Post-Covid 19 – Giving the Discretion of Zoom Teaching to Teachers , Directions in Legal Education 2020, Online Conference on Teaching and Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law 18-20 June 2020
• Invited Speaker, ‘Preparing law students for practice: The Simulated Client Project’, Conference on Teaching and Learning in Law: Directions in Legal Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law 2 June 2018
• Invited Speaker, ‘Professional Education and the Simulated Clients – Possible Futures in Legal Education’, joint session with Nigel Hudson of Nottingham Trent University, Center of Legal Education, Nottingham, 5 June 2017
• Invited Speaker, ‘The Client Pitch Project: Use of Simulated Clients for Client Presentations’, Simulated Clients – a Portrait of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching in Legal Education, Workshop co-organized by Society of Legal Scholars, Profession, Regulation and Education in Law and City University London, London, United Kingdom, 2 June 2017

For further details on Simulated Client Initiative see:

• • Simulated Client Initiative website – an international collaboration to develop a research base and resources for the use of simulated clients in legal education
  • Simulated Client London Workshop on Paul Maharg’s legal education blog

• Invited Speaker, ‘Regulation of Backdoor Listings in Hong Kong’, Symposium on Law & Business of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, National Cheng Chi University, Taiwan
• Speaker for Parallel Session, ‘Making Law Students Client Ready: Training Students Lawyering Skills in a Substantive Law Course’, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo 2016, 16 December 2016
• Invited Chair and Speaker for Parallel Session, ‘Active and Simulation-based learning for Future Corporate Lawyers’, Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, inaugural Conference on Teaching and Learning in Law: Directions in Legal Education, 3-4 June 2016
  Details of the session available here on Paul Maharg’s legal education blog.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Corporate Finance: Initial Public Offerings, Backdoor Listings, Hong Kong Listing Rules compliance matters
• Mergers & Acquisitions: Private Acquisitions, Private Equity
• Securities Regulation: Insider Dealing, Market Misconduct and Enforcement
• Legal Education: Professional Legal Education, Simulation-based Learning, Simulated Clients, Interdisciplinary Learning and Experiential Learning